Common ground was hard to find yesterday as prison officials, the controller's office and Northampton County Council's Finance Committee discussed recent criticism of lax bookkeeping in some prison accounts.

A June 11 controller's report said the problems made it impossible to determine whether the auto shop account, the inmates' personal property account, the work release agency fund and the commissary fund are being handled properly. Among management deficiencies cited, failure to segregate accounting duties was a major finding.

The accounts in question are largely self-funded, meaning they don't use tax dollars, but that didn't keep Warden Robert A. Olander from going on the offensive yesterday.

While the prison has constantly been cited for the same problems, dating back more than a decade, he said that is because the controller's office never provides answers when help is requested.

He pleaded, "Tell us what reforms are needed and we'll do them."

Jean Miskowski, internal audit manager for Controller Kenneth A. Florey, agreed that "the same hits" occur year after year. But, she said, "We're in phase one and we're being crucified for doing our job."

Miskowski said the next step is training people to prepare financial statements, without which audits can't be performed. But Olander responded, "They want us to do all the legwork and they'll say it's correct."

Olander said his employees are not accountants, and shouldn't be asked to do that work. Deputy Warden James Onembo asked for someone from the controller's office to spend the rest of the year in the prison developing an acceptable accounting system.

Olander added, "We have segregated the duties as much as we can with the personnel ... that are in place. Short of adding staff, I don't know what we can do."

County Fiscal Affairs Director Charles L. "Pete" Houck said the fuss seemed like "much ado about nothing" because the three accounts are "peanuts" compared to others in the county.

No balance was available for the inmates' personal property fund, but the controller said the other three accounts combined handled roughly $250,000 at the end of 1988. The prison's current annual operating budget is $6.5 million.

Houck said segregation of duties is "in place in most offices."

"If it's not over there (at the prison), it ought to be."

But, he said, "You can't expect people hired as secretaries or supervisors to be accountants, because they're not."

Council President Gordon T. Heller, searching for a happy medium, said, "I don't think we're reinventing the wheel. It shouldn't take more than a week" to help set up proper accounting procedures.

While hard feelings and future actions appeared to be unresolved, everyone departed the meeting saying they would work together better.